Kogan Mobile finds another way to upset customers – will you miss out on your refund??

If you’re a Kogan Mobile customer, you’ve been to hell and back over the last few weeks. After launching with great fanfare, then having disconnection dramas ending in court, and then just this week having to shut down totally, you’d think it couldn’t get much worse for Kogan Mobile customers. Well, it appears that it can – with an announcement implying that some Kogan Mobile customers will possibly miss out on a full refund, simply due to the fact that they took their own action, by reacting promptly to move off the network.

Since the announcement that ispONE had entered voluntary administration and that Kogan Mobile services would cease, customers in their thousands have been buying new SIM cards and porting their number away to a new carrier with the confidence it seemed that a refund for unused service was coming their way.

Now – there’s a catch. Kogan have updated their announcement page to advise customers not to port their numbers away from Kogan until the very last-minute.

Kogan’s update for users

That “last-minute” happens when Telstra sends a message to the customer advising them they have been moved to a 7 day plan with Telstra and have a limited ability to use calls and texts and have no data access.

The reason for this, EFTM understands, is that this is the date that Telstra will advise Kogan of the “disconnection” and therefore it is the date by which Kogan plans to pay customers a refund for any unpaid days of usage.

However, it fails to take into account the need for customers to have an assurance of service, and to manage their move away from Kogan/Telstra at a time that suits them, not at an unknown date in the future to be determined by Telstra.

This is an example of poor planning and bad customer relationship management on the part of Kogan.

UPDATE: EFTM has spoken to sources close to Kogan mobile who have told us this advice does not impact on payment of refunds. Customers will still be entitled to a refund based on their date of porting. It seems Kogan released this statement to assist in the staggering of the porting requests, with delays already being experienced, however it’s a lesson in dealing with customers as this message is widely being misinterpreted and customers confused about their entitlements as a result

Kogan should immediately advise customers that if they can provide proof of porting away from the Kogan network on a specific date they will pay a refund based on that date – otherwise, it seems, you may be forfeiting your ability to get a refund for the full unused amount if at all.

The full Kogan announcement is on their website, and is reproduced below.